


Safe Room

by NightmaresDreams



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Keith (Voltron), Alpha Shiro (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Comedy, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Insecure Lance (Voltron), M/M, Multi, Omega Lance (Voltron), Omega Verse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Abuse, how dare I put comedy after all those other tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-03-28 01:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13893657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightmaresDreams/pseuds/NightmaresDreams
Summary: Lance is fine.He doesn't need to bother anyone with his little problems.  He's got Blue, he's got a system, and he's gotunhealthycoping mechanisms.The only real problem he needs help with is not making all these beautiful people fall in love with him-Wait, Allura come back!





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I may be tweaking canon a bit here and there. I mean, I had plans and parts written out and then the new seasons keep on having to change things, causing me to give up and just allow everything to work out on its own. (SO MUCH IS OFF FROM CANON I'M SO SORRY).
> 
> I still don't know how to work Ao3

Is there nothing on this ship to help people sleep at night? Lance rummages through the shelves in the med-bay to no avail. There are dozens of vials and pill bottles of different colors and sizes. It also doesn’t help that he can’t read the language on the bottles. He doesn’t want to accidentally ingest something like foot cream. Not again. Memories of the Garrison’s Halloween party flash through his mind and he shudders.  
  


Never again.  
  


He groans when he realizes that there’s no use to trying to find something if he can’t even read the words. He’s going to have to convince Coran or Pidge to label these someday when they’re free. Which means it’s never going to happen. Lance massages his sore neck as he walks away from the shelves and towards the exit. The doors slide open before him let him out into the hallway where only the hum of the castle and the soft padding of his slippers are the only things that can be heard as he walks down an empty hallway. He is hesitant to go back to his empty room where he knows he’ll just stare at the ceiling until Allura tries to surprise them with another early morning drill. Nevertheless, he continues onto his room. His steps slow as he walks by Hunk’s door. He wants to knock on the door and see what his best bro’s up to, but Lance has already bothered him enough this week, so he continues walking. He stares at his blue lion slippers as he trudges through the hallway. His mind wanders to his lion and he can’t help but wonder if she ever sleeps. Does she have nightmares as well?  
  


An idea hits Lance and he sprints the remaining distance to his room with a dumb grin on his face. The door slides open upon his arrival and Lance wastes no time gathering his blankets and pillows. He has them in a clumsy bundle in his arms before he pauses and sets the bedding back on his mattress. He arranges the sheets and pillows to look like a slightly lived in nest before searching the room’s closet for the spare bedding. Lance spreads the bottom sheet flat on the floor, before tossing all the extra blankets and pillows in the middle of the sheet. He pulls the corners of the fabric together; creating a makeshift sack for him to carry the bedding. He heaves the sack over his shoulder and makes his way out of the room. He doesn’t quite run through the halls, but he has to move quickly. Lance knows looks suspicious, walking alone down the halls in the dead of night (or the ship’s night, since space doesn’t have a day cycle) carrying a sack, and nobody besides Hunk would let his weirdass behavior slide. After all, Hunk has seen so much worse from him.  
  


Like at the Halloween party.  
  


Also, the New Years party.  
  


The principal’s surprise birthday party  
  


Lance needs to stop going to these parties.  
  


Luckily, he’s able to get to Blue’s hangar before anyone could spot him. He grins when he spots Blue in her usual spot, but the grin fades when doubt enters his mind. Is Blue going to be okay this? He doesn’t think she’ll deny him, but he needs to know if she’s willing.  
  


“Hey Blue.” Lance’s voice is soft, but he knows his lion hears him; she always hears him. “I need to- well- I was wondering if you’re not busy, if you could- well if you could-” Lance’s mouth can’t seem to match his thoughts and he just wants to do the thing and… Jesus Christ can he not screw up for once in his damn life-.  
  


Blue lowers her head and opens her mouth. Lance hears a soft purr through his bond, which, of course he forgot about because he can’t even… Damnit. He smiles at Blue, but he can only hold his expression for a second before he is hit with a wave of exhaustion. Blue purrs comfortingly as he adjusts his bedding sack and steps inside her. Systems light up as he walks through the passage towards the cockpit, to his surprise however, the ladder leading up to the cockpit doesn’t lower down for him.  
  


“Blue,” he asks hesitantly. Lance hoped that she wouldn’t turn him down, but maybe he was expecting too much. He can feel a slight sense of denial through the bond before the wall to his left opens up, revealing a dark hidden hallway. He didn’t know he was in Tomb Raider, but whatever. He slowly walks down the hallway, the floor’s lights turning on as he nears them and back off when he reaches a certain distance away from them. He can eventually make out a door at the end of the hall, that slides open when he gets close enough to it. He was lowkey expecting something freaky, so he is pleasantly surprised when the lights flicker on, revealing a small bedroom. The walls, ceiling, and floor all have the same metallic shade that resides in the rest of Blue’s interior. In the far-right corner, lies a thin mattress, while in the far left corner, is a pod containing a spare suit paladin armor. To his immediate right is a small sink and toilet, side by side. To his immediate right are metallic drawers residing in the wall. When Lance pushes the button on one of them, the drawer slides out with a soft hiss and the sight of medical equipment, canned food, and water greets him. This stuff is probably around ten thousand years old and will need to be swapped with something fresher. He can feel Blue’s agreement as he shuts the drawer. He stares at the closed drawer before he can feel a grin threaten break out over his face.  
  


“Is this okay?” He asks, Lance can feel Blue’s consent and he smiles gratefully at the drawer. Once he realizes what he is looking at, he laughs to himself before starting to make the bed. He’ll have to add more bedding to make a proper nest, he’ll also have to remake it every time there’s a fight, because he knows that the bedding will end up flying around this room as he deals with bullet hell. It’s a small place to pay to find a place for him to wake up screaming without waking up the entire castle.  
  


Not again.  
  


He can only claim that he thought a tuft of his hair was a spider so many times.  
  


An ugly mixture of a laugh and a sob escapes his through throat as he kneels on the bed. He has to make sure, just one more time.  
  


“Is this okay?”  
  


Acceptance is all he can feel, so he curls around his pillow and starts to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this very very short first chapter.  
> Feel free to rip this fic apart with criticism. Helpful criticism, that isn't just "U SUK" because I'll just agree with you and never get better. It can be about my grammar, storyline, oocness, bad jokes (These may actually never get better actually), or anything you notice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I am a liar. Why on Earth did I think I could ever not procrastinate. The worst part is that this part has been written for months, but the chapter just kept on getting longer and longer, so I decided to just post this and post the other part of the original chapter later.

      First of all, Lance would like to thank Saint Allura for introducing him to the Godsend that is Altean facemasks. They are easy to apply, easier to take off, and the smell doesn’t burn the hair out of his nostrils. Also, his sleep schedule can be as messed up as it wants to be now that there will be no bags or wrinkles in the morning. Lance will admit that he’s not sure how the mask takes away the puffiness in his eyes since he’s not exactly applying the stuff on his eyelids, but he’s not going to question his luck. Now Hunk doesn’t ask about his worn down appearance anymore. His main man’s got enough stuff to deal with.  
     Also, his skin is practically glowing and that’s always fantastic.  
     In fact, he is about to apply said mask when the castle’s alarms blare out.  
     “Paladins,” Allura’s voice echoes throughout the hangar, “We just received a distress call from the Blade of Mamora, they are being tracked by Galra cruisers. The ship is heavily damaged and their cargo is too important for them to abandon.”  
     Lance has the spare uniform on and is entering the cockpit in record time. Blue hums to life as he takes his seat. He waits for the hangar doors to open before pushing on the throttle and flying out of the castle. Black and white specks are all Lance can see, which means that none of the other lions are out yet. He’s almost always the last one out, so he panics for a second before realizing that the others probably were probably in their beds when the alarms sounded. It’ll probably take them a few minutes to arrive.  
     The green lion joins him a second later.  
     Oh. He forgot about the ‘I don’t need to sleep I need to work in my hangar throughout the night’ fellow insomniac Pidge. She’s usually the first one out because of the that.  
“Allura,” Lance calls out, “Me and Pidge are going to get a head start.” He doesn’t wait for Allura’s response before pushing the lever to his right and Blue shoots forward with the green lion following closely behind.  
     “You’re here early,” Pidge’s comments through the coms.  
     Play it cool.  
     “Just thought I’d visit my beautiful girl.”  
     “At our equivalence of two o’clock in the morning?” Pidge sounds doubtful.  
     Shit! Shit!  
     “Anytime is a good time to visit Blue,” Lance argues.  
     Pidge sighs and Lance grins to himself. He watches stars and planets zoom past him as he continues to pilot Blue.  
     “Lance.” Pidge’s voice is hesitant, which is worrying in itself.  
     “You okay, Pidge?”  
     “I was actually going to ask you that.”  
     He’s actually doing pretty well compared to last week, but then Pidge will want to know what happened last week and Lance doesn’t want to talk about that. He’s tempted to brush it off, but he wants to know what Pidge is seeing.  
     “What do you mean?”  
     “You just seem stressed.”  
     “Considering we’ve got a rather stressful job-”  
     “I mean more than usual.”  
     Redirect.  
     “So you noticed,” Lance mutters, “I thought I was doing a good job with hiding it.”  
     Pidge is silent.  
     “I mean the bags under my eyes are awful, but I thought the face masks were helping. No wonder you think I’m stressed.”  
     He can’t help but snicker at Pidge’s loud sigh.  
     “I’m not talking about-” Pidge lets out an exaggerated groan “Your face is fine. It’s just… You don’t talk as much, you’re zoned out, you get even more snappy with Keith, you're getting reckless-”  
     “Reckless?” Lance hopes this is a general ‘Lance, why did you taste unmarked blue powder in the science lab?’ recklessness and not the ‘you are risking everyone’s safety’ recklessness.  
     “Just now, you flew off without the okay from Allura or Shiro and this isn’t the first time you’ve done stuff like this in the past couple of days,” Pidge chastises, “We’re a team, not Lance’s backup squad.”  
     What is he doing?  
     “I’m sorry.” He doesn’t want to lie, but he doesn’t want to tell the truth. “I’ve been thinking about my sister, Maria. You remember Maria, the one who sent me the shark body pillow in the mail? Her wife was due to have her baby about a week or so ago. I promised I’d be there for that, but here I am.” He lets that sink in for Pidge before continuing. “I don’t mean it like an excuse, I just felt like maybe you should know the reason.”  
     Pidge is silent for a moment, but Lance feels like she’ll fall for it.  
     “You can talk to us Lance,” Hunk buts in, “We aren’t just your teammates, we’re your friends.”  
     Lance didn’t even realize that the other paladins have caught up with the two of them and must have been listening to their conversation.  
     “I too know what it’s like to miss home,” Allura’s voice rings through the coms. “Hunk is right, talking about it helps. We can swap stories about home if you’d like.”  
     Lance has a line, but it’s gonna feel a little forced.  
     “It’s okay, I can feel right a home in your arms.”  
     Pidge groans loudly and Allura lets out a sigh.  
     “We’re approaching the target.” Shiro’s voice echoes through the coms.  
     Lance sees the tiny Mamora ship, sputtering along with these gigantic ass Galra Cruisers following it. Lance is honestly so proud of that little ship right now. Like, it keeps on going. He needs a motivational poster of this image. Go little ship go-OH NO IT’S ON FIRE!  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
     Lance was able to put the fire out with his lion’s ice. Now, he’s with Hunk defending the Blade of Mamora’s ship while the rest of the team fight off five cruisers and dozens of fighter ships. Whenever a fighter ship got to close to the Blade’s ship, Lance or Hunk would shoot them out of the sky. What’s gonna work? Teamwork! That is until the paladins receive an urgent message from Kolivan through the coms.  
     “Paladins,” Kolivan’s voice is strained, “our ship has been infiltrated by Galran mercenaries. They must have stowed away before we took off. We are short of soldiers and need someone to board and guard the cargo while we hunt them down.”  
     The others are busy destroying Galran ships.  
     Hunk’s lion has the best defense and needs to stay to guard the ship.  
     That leaves Lance.  
     “Can you handle them on your own Hunk?” Lance has to make sure. He can’t be reckless. Again.  
     “I got ‘em,” Hunk illustrates his point by taking four ships down in one shot like the talented man he is.  
     “Got it,” Lance steers Blue towards the Blade’s ship, “Where can I board?”  
     “We’ll open the hangar’s doors on your side.” True to his word, the doors opened. It was thankfully big enough for Lance to park Blue in. As soon as Blue’s paws touch the hangar floor, she lowers her head to let Lance out. A member of the Blade meets with him and wordlessly gestures for him to follow. Lance admits that he has a hard time keeping up with the Blade member’s long gait, even with his own beanpole legs, without jogging a little. Lance doesn’t ask him to slow down, for obvious reasons, but is thankful when the Blade member does slow down as the both of them approach a vault at the end of a long hallway. There are two other Blade members guarding the high-security door. Lance expects to take over one of them, but the two of them place a palm on the hand-scanners on opposite sides of a door.  
     “They have trouble remaining calm around Joshten because she’s an Alpha,” Lance’s guide explains as the door accepts the Blade’s handprints and unlocks, “Thankfully, you have a milder scent, so you should put them more at ease.”  
     Lance doesn’t get the chance to ask who his guide is talking about before the door slides open to reveal several pairs of frightened golden eyes staring at him. It’s a group of galra children, huddled together in the far left corner of an otherwise empty room. They are all rather young, with the oldest looking to be around eight and the youngest being a newborn held by one of the older children. Lance can’t tell if they are more scared or confused by the sight of him.  
     Lance wants to leave immediately.  
     He wants to ask the Blade to get someone else.  
     They’re just kids if Lance screws this up. . . .  
     “Joshten,” Lance jumps when his guide speaks, “join Kolivan in searching the lower deck.” An alpha blade member in the corner opposite of the children pushes herself off of the wall she was leaning on. She nods and swiftly exits the room. Lance’s guide enters the room and Lance hesitantly follows. After briefly operating a control panel next to the door from the inside, the door shuts and he turns to Lance. “We need you to do guard the kits until we are positive we are no longer in danger. Try to comfort them if you can. Also…” the blade member hesitates, which doesn’t make Lance feel more nervous at all. “The situation is more complicated than we previously let on. We have reason to suspect a mole is among our ranks, that’s why we needed an outside source to guard the kits. When I leave this room I need you to pull this lever,” he points to a silver lever above the control panel, “This will prevent anyone else from entering the room. Do not open the door for anyone, even for one of the blade members. When the time comes, we will bring one of the other paladins to get you to open the door, understood?”  
     His grip quivers.  
     He doesn’t want to do this.  
     Lance nods once.  
     The man turns back to the control panel and opens the door. Before he walks out of the room, he pauses and takes one last long look at the group of kids. A distant explosion causes a tremor to rack through the ship and the Blade member sprints away. As soon as the door automatically closes behind him, Lance pulls the silver lever down. Or he tries to, he has to put his full body weight on top of the lever before it slowly slides down; sounds of gears and locks turning as is sinks down to the bottom. Once that is done, Lance turns to the kids who are all staring at him. Lance needs to get over himself, a group of kids will always be more important than his anxiety. He can only imagine how scared they all-  
     “What the balmeran’s ass are you?”  
     …  
     What?  
     “Keto,” a little girl hisses at the boy who spoke, “You’re not supposed to say that word!”  
     “What? Ass?”  
     “No, balmeran! You know you’re not supposed to say that!”  
     “But you just said it!”  
     “I was just making sure you knew that you weren’t supposed to say it.”  
     “You just wanted to say it too!”  
     “Nuh-uh.”  
     Those two are siblings. There’s no way they’re not.  
     “I’m the blue paladin of Voltron?”  
     Why is he saying it like a question?  
     “My name is Lance,” he grins, “Who are you?”  
     “I’m Keto,” the talkative boy points to himself before pointing to the girl he was arguing with, “That’s Keeno. She’s my sister.”  
     Haha, Lance is right again.  
     Lance waits for a moment, for one of the other kids to respond, but none of them say a thing. The rest of them just alternate between staring at the floor or him. Lance is more than familiar with how to act with hordes of small children thanks to his numerous cousins (why Aunt Linda, why?) so he may be able to do this without emotionally scarring them.  
     He can do this.  
     “Hey,” Lance’s rifle transforms back to its original shape and he hangs from his belt, “It’s okay. Sorry if I scared you guys, it’s crazy out there.” Lance reaches up to his head and, upon noticing how some of the kids tense at this, he slows his movements as he taps the side of his helmet. The lower half of his visor slides away. Without the visor covering his face, Lance can smell an unhealthy amount of anxiety and fear from these kids. He wants to comfort them, but he has to do it at their own pace.  
     “Do you mind if I sit here,” Lance points at a spot on the floor in front of the kids, “or would you prefer me to be over there?” Lance points to the corner that the alpha guard stood previously. The kids look to each other in question. “I won’t mind either answer,” Lance reassures them. One of the kids shakily points his finger to the corner of the room. “Understood.” Lance slowly starts to back away.  
     “Wait!” Keeno rushes forward a grabs his hand. “Where are you going?”  
     “It was requested that I go to the corner,” Lance grins, “How can I turn down a humble request?”  
     “You say no!”  
     “Whoever said that is just a wimp!” Keto shouts. The kid who pointed to the corner looks down at the ground in shame.  
     “I don’t mind.” Before Keeno can stop him, Lance slides his hand out of her grip and trots to the corner. “I’ll just be over here, but-” Lance dramatically spins and sits to face the kids, “any of you can join me over here if you want to.” At first, no one seems willing to leave the little group. He is probably asking for too much by expecting them to leave the space where they feel the safest- here comes Keeno. She shuffles towards him before stopping in the middle of the room. She takes a deep breath, then continues towards him until she’s standing about a foot away from him.  
     “You have pretty eyes!” She gushes.  
     “Thank you-”  
     “Can I touch them?”  
     Lance freezes before eyeing her little claws.  
     “No, that would hurt.” Lance smiles, but that doesn’t stop Keeno from visibly wilting.  
     “Really?”  
     “Wouldn’t that hurt you?” Lance asks.  
     “Of course.” Keeno crosses her arms and tilts her head to the side; like she’s confused. Lance is the one that’s confused.  
     Before Lance can say anything, a distant explosion shakes the room and causes the lights to flicker. Lance can hear a collection of whimpers and the scent of fear kicks back in full force. He needs to fix this, fast.  
     “It’s okay,” Lance smiles at Keeno, “It seems scary now, but things’ll get better. I mean, I’ve been through worse and survived.”  
     Keeno looked doubtful, as did everyone else.  
     “Like, one time I got stuck in a storage bin that was rolling down a big hill. That was scary, but I’m still alive.”  
     Now everyone looks confused.  
     “Why?” Keto asks.  
     “I wanted to know what sledding was like so I-”  
     “Sledding?” Another galra child pipes up.  
     “It’s where you slide down on snow-”  
     “Snow?”  
     “It’s like. . . soft frozen water.”  
     They still seemed confused, but they didn’t ask anything else.  
     “Well anyway, I wanted to sled but there wasn’t any snow where I lived, so I thought I could still slide down the hill, but we didn’t have a sled so my sister said we could use a storage bin.” The kids are giving him his full attention. “Then I was afraid that I would fall out, so my other sister said we could put the lid on, then tape it down so it would stay in place. So I was curled up in a small bin at the top of a hill and my sisters pushed the bin. It’s sliding and everything is great until I hit a bump and FWAP,” Lance twists one hand before slapping it on his other, “I get flipped upside down and tumble down the rest of the hill.”  
     Keeno and a few other kids giggle.  
     “That’s not scary!” One of the boys walks over to Lance and Keeno. “One time I was chased by a group of choozas, but my father fought them all off.”  
     “That sounds interesting,” Lance rubs his chin, “I’ve never heard of a chooza before though, what that?”  
     “A chooza is a long bug with hundreds of legs,” a little girl pipes in while carrying an infant with her towards the three of them. “It’s a little taller than me and is as long as this room.”  
     Holy shit.  
     “That crazy,” Lance tones it down, “my mama had to save my sister from some swans once.”  
     “What’s a swan?” Keto has joined them.  
     “Vicious white birds that attack all who dare cross their path.”  
     “Is your sister okay?” One of them asks.  
     “She was crying because one of the swans ruined her fishtail braid, but I fixed that for her.”  
     “What’s a fishtail braid?”  
     His little sister’s favorite hairstyle.  
     “A type of braid commonly worn back on my home planet.”  
     “Can you give me one?” Keeno asks. Lance eyes her short white braid for a moment.  
     “I think so.”  
     Keeno beams as she undoes her braid and walks towards him. She plops down with her back facing him. Lance runs his fingers through her silky white hair (hot damn her hair is so pretty) and gets to work.  
     “This reminds me of the time me and my cousin Julian braided poison ivy in my cousin Kate’s hair.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, any problems you notice feel free to bring up.
> 
> I still don't understand AO3's formatting techniques. I accidentally posted this twice before it was ready. I'm just giving up for now.  
> I'm not ready.  
> I'll never be ready.  
> *EDIT- Make that five. Five times, because I don't understand AO3. *cries


End file.
